Marussia Manor's Tio Ellinas will start from pole position for the opening round of the new-look GP3 Series season after a fascinating battle at Barcelona, in which he actually finished second.

The fastest man overall, Kevin Korjus, entered the session with a 10-place grid penalty after transgressing in free practice on Friday.

Koiranen racer Korjus topped the session with a lap of 1m34.193s, just 0.040 seconds quicker than Ellinas.

The new-generation cars now feature a far more powerful 3.4-litre AER V6 engine, producing 400bhp, and Korjus's time was 4.305s faster than the qualifying record at Barcelona set by Mitch Evans in 2011.

Free practice pacesetter Patric Niederhauser of Jenzer Motorsport will start alongside Ellinas on the front row after he set the third quickest time right at the end of the session, pipping two other penalised drivers - Alex Fontana and Carlos Sainz Jr.

That means sixth-fastest qualifier Conor Daly will start third for ART, despite his last flying lap being negatively influenced by Arden's Daniil Kvyat. The Red Bull protege duly received a three-place penalty.

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